This unsigned Harper's Weekly cartoon contrasts the
opinions of William Howard Russell, war correspondent for the London
Times, upon entering and leaving the United States.

Born and educated in Ireland but thoroughly Anglicized, Russell joined the staff of the London
Times in 1843 and became the world's first war correspondent when
he covered the Crimean War (1853-1856). He added to his experience
and fame by reporting the Indian (Sepoy) Mutiny of 1858, the American
Civil War (1861-1862), and later, the Austro-Prussian War (1866), the Franco-Prussian War
(1870-1871), and the Zulu War (1879).

When an armed conflict between the free North and slave South seemed
likely in early 1861, London Times editor John Delaneshipped
Russell off to America. He arrived on March 16 as a celebrity
journalist whose influence was sought by Unionists and
Confederates. The initial reaction of Americans to Russell is
reflected in right-side caption of the cartoon, "By George!! they
treat a fellow like a prince in this Yankeeland! you know."

Although
his editor believed that Southern independence was inevitable, Russell
had an aversion to slavery and, at a St. Patrick's Day dinner in New
York City, urged the preservation of the Union. Contrary to most
of his British or American contemporaries, Russell understood that if a civil war
began, it would be a lengthy bloodbath.
New Yorkers were not pleased with his first letter published in the London
Times which essentially accused them of being oblivious to the
impending crisis.

Russell journeyed to Washington, D. C., as
tensions mounted over the Confederate threat to Fort Sumter, off the
coast of Charleston, South Carolina. On his first night in the
capital, he dined with Secretary of State William Seward, who desired to
use the journalist to convince Britain and France not to recognize the
Confederacy. The next day, Seward introduced Russell to President
Abraham Lincoln, who described the London Times as the world's
second most powerful force, behind the Mississippi River. While
staying at the Willard Hotel, Russell also met with Confederate
sympathizers who emphasized the irreconcilable differences between the
regions.

On April 13, Russell headed for the South as the Confederates
fired on Fort Sumter. From Norfolk, Virginia, he traveled by train
through North Carolina to Charleston, then on to the temporary
Confederate capital of Montgomery, Alabama, where he met President
Jefferson Davis. In his published reports, Russell despaired that
the Southern hatred of the North was so great as to make reunion
impossible. The Confederates were surprised by his strange
suggestion that they become British subjects, but they were infuriated
by his critical descriptions of slavery.

By late June 1861, Russell
had gauged the negative reaction of Americans to his London Times correspondence: "I am
told I am very unpopular with the North & in New York. I can't
help it. I must write as I feel & see & I believe I may
have the consolation accorded to the impartial of finding myself still
more unpopular in the South."

After traveling by
steamboat up the Mississippi River, Russell took a train across the
North, reporting on the deficient armaments and inferior physique of the
Union volunteers compared to the swashbuckling Confederates. He
also lambasted the American press which he believed was responsible for
the sectional conflict. On July 21, 1861, Russell was late for the
Battle of Bull Run (Manassas, Virginia) and missed most of the
fighting. That did not prevent him from filing a story on the
"cowardly route" and "scandalous behavior" of the
retreating Union troops. His dispatch to the London Times
provoked a firestorm of criticism in the Union press.

As his harsh
depiction of slavery had made him persona non grata in the
Confederacy, so after Bull Run Russell found his access to Union
military and political figures closed. He was subjected to harsh
abuse in the American press, and his editors in London harped on his
growing expense account. Finally, on April 9, 1862 (a week after
this cartoon appeared on April 2), he sailed for London. The
cartoonist demonstrates how the cigar-smoking, hard-drinking Russell
(characteristics shared with most American reporters) had shrunk in
stature during his American sojourn.